Published 16:56 IST, January 18th 2022

Taiwan: 5 businessmen sentenced for buying votes for Chinese Nationalist Party candidate

Five Taiwanese were found guilty of taking money from the mainland to purchase votes for the Chinese Nationalist Party on the island.

Reported by: Aanchal Nigam
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Taipei District Court on Monday sentenced at least five Taiwanese businesspeople working in China after y were found guilty of taking money from Chinese authorities to purchase votes for Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidate, Han Kuo-yu in 2020 presidential election in island. According to Taipei Times, investigation revealed that Taiwanese businessmen were organising garings and banquets in a bid to convince Taiwanese in Hunan to support KMT and Han’s presidential campaign in late 2019 including offers to pay for ir airfares.

In largest election event, defendants on December 21, 2019, h organised a year-end banquet for Taiwanese at Changsha’s Huatian Hotel. In that garing, businessmen reportedly instructed attendees to buy tickets to fly home to vote for Han as well as or KMT candidates on 11 January 2020 and showed m how to 1,500 yuan to pay for cost of airfares, investigation uncovered.

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Documents showed that 467 Taiwanese who attended event applied for money, prosecutors said according to report. Taiwanese District court ruling even said that Lin and defendants gave “bribes” in exchange for votes for specific candidates and violated Presidential and Vice Presidential Election and Recall Act. court, hence, sentenced Lin Huai, chairman of Association of Taiwan Investment Enterprises Changsha City Branch to three years and 10 months in jail with deprivation of his civil rights for four years. 

Ors, convicted in same case received prison terms for 20 months and se included,  China New Family Association chairwoman Chiang Ming-sia, Hunan Shaoyang City Association in Taiwan director Chang Kuo-chun, Hengyang-based businessman Chuang Huan-chang and Chinese Women's Federation deputy secretary Shen Bin who conducted business in Hunan, reported Taipei Times. 

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Funding for entire scheme came from Huang

Reportedly, probe also found that funding for scheme came from Huang Daonian, director of Economic Bureau at Changsha City's Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO). Both, local TAO and Changsha City Government allocated about 3.5 million yuan (USD 551,268) to support subsidies for Taiwanese to return home to vote. Notably, investigation found that Lin applied for same and received around 1.49 million yuan. As per report, prosecutors said that Huang allegedly told his staff to assist Lin as well as or Taiwanese living in Hunan. After sentences were handed out, Han’s office said on Monday that he was unaware of events and that his election campaign hequarters did not get any funds from people or organisations involved in scheme.

Image: AP

16:56 IST, January 18th 2022